


Missed Connections

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: 3 Sentence Ficathon, 3 Sentence Fiction, Gen, Knives, Melancholy, Mentors, Prompt Fic, Season/Series 03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-06
Updated: 2015-03-06
Packaged: 2018-03-16 15:33:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3493571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes Giles sees echoes of himself in Faith.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Missed Connections

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Snickfic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snickfic/gifts).



> Written 2/21/15 for [snickfic](http://snickfic.dreamwidth.org), in response to the prompt: _[BtVS, Faith/Giles, daggers and sheaths](http://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/119267.html?thread=4165347#cmt4165347)_.

Faith is sitting on a gravestone when Giles finds her, kicking her heels against the time-worn stone and picking her nails with a saw-toothed dagger that he recognizes, without surprise, as belonging to the Hriswath demon she and Buffy killed last night; she doesn't look up when he leans against a neighboring stone, just says, "Let's pretend I said I'm sorry and skip the whole heartfelt talk, 'kay?"

Giles looks at this girl like an unsheathed blade left out to rust and chip in a hostile world; sees the defensive set of her shoulders, the I'll-fuck-you-up-first bravado she wears like a second skin; and wishes for a moment that he had the time and energy to be the Watcher she deserves -- he has been where she is now, though for different reasons, and he'd prefer not to see her continue headlong down that path until she hits the same fatal wall that he's regretted for decades -- but he has Buffy to think of; Slayers don't share well; and surely Wesley will pull his head out of his arse in time to win Faith's trust.

"Your knife will last longer with proper care," he says instead of all the moral judgments she's braced to weather, and as he hands her the empty sheath he slipped from the demon's belt, he hopes she hears the message underneath the simple words.

**Author's Note:**

> This ficlet can also be found as [chapter two of "Three Sentence Ficlets (BtVS)"](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2545604/chapters/13274797), because I don't always realize I should organize things until significantly after the fact. *sigh*


End file.
